For Our Consideration

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  For Our Consideration Will country music be the savior of The Voice?

  It’s time for the show to produce a star, and courting the country market seems the best way to do that.

  June 18, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration The 5th Wave is a deeply annoying read—and one of the year’s best YA books

  Author Rick Yancey uses the readers’ desire to guess twists to build an unexpectedly emotional climax.

  June 17, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration Musical teen idols deserve more respect than they currently get

  The kids are all right.

  June 12, 2013 | 11:00am -

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  For Our Consideration Why Game Of Thrones’ Red Wedding packs such an emotional impact

  George R.R. Martin says he isn’t sure why, but his faithful readers know. Here’s why it’s worth sticking with the series.

  June 4, 2013 | 10:12am -

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  For Our Consideration Comics, Coltrane, and Cthulhu: The vital importance of pop-culture mentors

  Mentors provide a context that the Internet often does not.

  May 31, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration Will indie-rock reunions become just part of the plan?

  Breaking up is no longer forever.

  May 22, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration What do we mean when we call music pretentious?

  Just because “transcendental black metal” is a thing doesn’t mean it’s not from the heart.

  May 21, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration The crowd-funding conundrum: The line between bringing fans closer and taking advantage

  Have the latest batch of music-oriented Kickstarter campaigns gone too far?

  May 20, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration How The Office became one of the greatest television series about the American dream

  The series frequently portrayed the tension between personal and professional fulfillment.

  May 17, 2013 | 10:30am -

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  For Our Consideration High infidelity: For the love of side projects

  An appreciation of musical polyamory, from Tom Tom Club to Vår.

  May 15, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration Are oral histories a good way to write about music?

  Louder Than Hell is an unconventional oral history, but how much should an author shape a true story?

  May 14, 2013 | 11:00am -

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  For Our Consideration The Mindy Project should be more like Louie

  The troubled series is at its best when it’s a tale of weird romance in the city. Why not embrace that?

  May 13, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration 12 questions about the networks’ fall schedules

  Will anybody capitalize on weak Tuesdays?

  May 10, 2013 | 12:15pm -

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  For Our Consideration Upstream Color, Room 237, and why some movie mysteries don’t need to be solved

  Films are rarely served by revealing everything—especially when nothing’s there.

  May 7, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration How Scandal became the perfect distillation of America’s political nightmares

  Shonda Rhimes’ series is brazenly unrealistic—but it’s all in service of capturing how many Americans feel about their government.

  May 6, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration Why pulling an episode of Hannibal after the Boston bombings was a mistake

  We’ve been reworking TV shows in response to tragedy for 50 years now. It’s time to stop.

  May 3, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration Bob’s Burgers became TV’s most enjoyable show by channeling early Simpsons

  The series blends the surrealism of Adult Swim with the family stories of King Of The Hill.

  April 29, 2013 | 11:00am -

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  For Our Consideration Why the brokenness of breaking news probably won’t ever be fixed

  The coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing led to lots of journalistic follies—that will be repeated again and again.

  April 23, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration Why white critics’ fear of engaging Tyler Perry is stifling honest debate

  The ending of Temptation is sparking conversation in areas where critics usually fear to tread.

  April 18, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration Black Sabbath, Dust, and the myth of the “metallectual”

  Far from being the ugly, scumbag music it’s stereotyped as, metal is often both beautiful and harmonious.

  April 17, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration Let’s save network television!

  Sadly, the solution doesn’t involve being like cable.

  April 16, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration Nudity, profanity, and music energize Roger Ebert’s raucous Chicago memorial

  How the life-affirming rowdiness of a memorial reflected the unique philosophy of Ebert’s career.

  April 15, 2013 | 12:31pm -

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  For Our Consideration How “redneck reality” became the new rural working-class sitcom

  Television’s good ol’ boys haven’t disappeared, they’ve just moved to cable.

  April 11, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration Star Wars goes disco and other crassly commercial hits of the “Medley Age”

  An era of novelty music strip-mined pop culture for fleeting chart hits, and it was truly terrible.

  April 9, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration How The Americans makes massive, global stakes incredibly intimate

  The series’ belief that it’s, at heart, about a marriage extends to every one of its elements.

  April 8, 2013 | 12:00pm -

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  For Our Consideration From Deadwood to Justified: Acknowledging Jim Beaver’s awesomeness

  Beaver has a rare gift for illuminating the hidden qualities of men who usually don’t get a second look.

  April 2, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration Last Man Standing’s second season was the weirdest sitcom season since ’Til Death

  The show tried to go political, with hilariously mixed results.

  April 1, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  For Our Consideration The accent grave: Why don’t Americans play Americans on TV anymore?

  Actors doing accents discounts the diversity of the real world and diminishes the reality of the character.

  March 28, 2013 | 12:00pm -

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  For Our Consideration The Walking Dead succeeds by making death a character

  The show functions as a modern memento mori, a reminder that everyone on Earth will die.

  March 25, 2013 | 12:00pm -

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  For Our Consideration Parks And Recreation has a Leslie Knope problem 

  The show’s central character hasn’t faced believable opposition since the middle of season four. 

  March 18, 2013 | 12:00am -